Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (CLN2) disease is a rare genetic disease characterized by a deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme tripeptidyl peptidase-1 (TPP1) caused by mutations in the TPP1 gene. CLN2 disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive disorder, with an estimated incidence of 0.5 per 100,000 live births. In the absence of TPP1, lysosomal storage materials normally metabolized by the enzyme accumulate in many organs, and accumulation in the central nervous system leads to the neurodegenerative symptoms typical of CLN2 disease. The untreated disease progression of CLN2 disease has been well characterized, and the natural history of the disease is remarkably consistent and predictable, as demonstrated by natural history data from independent patient populations in North America and Europe.
CLN2 disease has a predominantly ‘classic’ late infantile phenotype. Children with CLN2 disease typically develop normally until about 3 years of age, when first symptoms emerge. Most commonly, CLN2 patients will have a first unprovoked seizure and begin to lag with acquiring normal language milestones. By age 3, all patients exhibit one or more signs of the disease, including for example, seizures, dementia, motor loss, movement disorder, blindness, clumsiness, ataxia and cognitive decline. From the onset of clinical symptoms, the course of the disease is rapid and aggressive, generally resulting in complete loss of language, cognition, gait, fine motor, bulbar function and vision within 2 to 4 years, rendering patients immobile, mute and blind. The patient remains in a vegetative state until death, which typically occurs between 6 and 12 years of age.
Two quantitative rating scales have been developed by expert clinicians in assessing the severity of CLN2 disease, and been employed in natural history studies: (1) the Hamburg scale (Steinfeld et al., Am J Med Genet. 2002; 112(4):347-54); and (2) the Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) scale (Worgall et al., Neurology. 2007; 69(6):521-35). The structure and assessment methodology of the two scales is similar. Both scales measure the loss of previously attained important neurological milestones in CLN2 patients, with each unit lost in the disease rating scale representing a fundamental milestone in progressive decline.
Analysis of disease course in untreated CLN2-affected children shows that after the onset of disease, they predictably lose all language and gait in 3 years, with a loss of, on the average, 2.1 milestone events (i.e., 2.1 points lost in the disease rating scale) each year. Language decline usually precedes gait, such that the first year is characterized by loss of intelligible speech and progression to ataxic gait, the second year is characterized by loss of ambulation and intelligible language, and the third year is characterized by loss of any locomotion or communication.
Recombinant human tripeptidyl peptidase-1 (rhTPP1) is being developed as a possible treatment for CLN2 disease. The rhTPP1 protein (SEQ ID NO:1) is produced in cell culture as a zymogen (proenzyme), which does not have enzymatic activity. The proenzyme is auto-activated at acidic pH (and by lysosomal proteases) upon uptake to the lysosome. The mature native TPP1 protein is a lysosomal serine protease, and is the only known mammalian member of the sedolisin (serine-carboxyl peptidase) family characterized by a highly conserved Ser-Glu-Asp (SED) catalytic triad. The catalytic triad on rhTPP1 is formed by S456, E253 and D341. The primary activity of the enzyme is as a tripeptidyl exopeptidase with a broad substrate specificity. Activity of the enzyme on its substrate leads to a sequential release of tripeptides from the N-terminus of the protein substrate (Oyama et al., J Biochem. 2005; 138(2):127-34). A secondary, significantly weaker endoproteolytic activity with a pH optimum of 3 has also been reported (Lin et al., J Biol Chem. 2001; 276(3):2249-55).
The only commercially available treatments for CLN2 are symptomatic and supportive; there are currently no approved therapeutic options to slow or halt the inexorable progression of CLN2, much less reverse the deleterious effects of the disease (Mole, S. E., and Williams, R. E., 2010, GeneReviews; Chang et al., in The Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses (Batten Disease); 2011, Oxford Univ Press). Preservation of motor, language and/or vision capabilities for these children would be a clinically meaningful benefit for both patients and parents/caregivers. Thus, there is a need for new treatments for CLN2 which reduce or prevent deterioration of physiological functions associated with the disease.